SEO is Nearly Dead

Question

We need some more help with SEO and getting our stores name out there. We really want to build our website up more and would love to show up in Google, when people type in something like children's boutiques in Chicago, for instance.

Answer

There are definitely some things you can do to improve the SEO on your website. Given you are using HipCommerce, I would recommend the following 4 items to get started:

Department & Category HeadersBe sure to read the part about how you can expand and collapse these areas on your website. You can add a lot of extra SEO content on these pages but only show the text when the consumer clicks on the link to read more. This is a very useful SEO technique, especially on pages that feature your brands and designers.

Without question your should definitely make sure the above 4 items are done on your website ASAP.

However, simply making the above SEO changes is not enough anymore. Since early 2011 Google has been modifying the criteria that's used to display search results and have placed a lot more emphasis on the content you are adding to your website. This must be original content created by you and your store that shows up in your blog, product pages and other areas of your website. This is not content that can be copied from your vendor's site but instead must be original and must be exclusive to your website.

The following blog articles provides some additional information on Google's search changes and the importance of Content Marketing: